Accused killer regular client of prostitutes

Terry Driver was a hyperactive youngster, diagnosed at two with mild brain dysfunction, whihch meant he had to spend his school years in group-care facilities.

At age 12, he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, a neurological disorder that has tic-like symptoms and obsessive-compulsive aspects, which make him compulsively wash his hands and check doorknobs.

Driver's thought patterns are also affected, said his lawyer Glen Orris. But Orris stressed yesterday that Drive is fully aware of the impact of his actions.

"I want to be clear on this -- we are not leading this evidence to suggest this is a defence or there is a psychiatric defence," said Orris in opening the defence at Driver's murder trial, in which he has admitted to raping 16-year-old Tanya Smith.

"What he did, he knows is wrong. He knows it's wrong legally and it's wrong morally and there's no issue with that."

The court heard Driver graduated from a career-preparation program in printing at Vancouver Technical secondary and got a job at Abbotsford Printing. He married in 1990 and is the father of two.

Orris said Driver's "strong sexual impulses" prompted him to regularly use prostitutes when he worked in Vancouver in the early 1980s. (One of the notes given by Driver to police included a news clipping about the 1985 unsolved murder of a Vancouver prostitute).

"He has used hookers on a regular basis ...up until this event he has channelled this into socially acceptable ways -- but this is not a component of his personality."